Re: City of Dreams

In article <qtquc25akmam2gkn9gvkmuesnktcg30skv@xxxxxxxxxx>,
Jeffrey Kaplan <nomail@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It is alleged that Chris claimed:


or a blank CD to record it to. there's also plenty of 3rd party software
for loading the ipod with, and yes, it actually still works.

I know. But of the fully "iTunes format compatible" that I could find,
none of them worked well, or indeed at all for me. Moot point now that
I no longer use an iPod.


i don't like subscription based services. with iTunes if i like a song,

Me neither. Rhapsody has both a subscription service and a regular
"you like it, you buy it" plan. So does Napster.

the only reference i could find to anything like this on rhapsody.com
was about a free plan that limited you to 25 songs per month. i could
find no pricing for individual tracks on the introductory pages, and as
i said in the first post, it wouldn't let me progress very far into the
site due to claims that my browser was inadequate(ie, they use something
non-standard and want to blame me), all the reviews i could find also
mentioned nothing about an ability to buy music without subscribing
first.

i'll take your word that it can be done, however. :-)

it on an ipod, or if i want some other mp3 player, i can simply burn it
to audio cd, and import it as standard mp3 as soon as the burning ends.

Since you're starting with a lossy compression format to begin with,
and then re-compressing that, there is a not insignificant loss of
audio quality.

meh, i can barely hear a difference between CD's and mp3's, and even
then only when listening on some of my higher end equipment(the infiniti
system in my car, or yamaha in my living room). when on my headphones,
the sound quality difference is nigh inaudible. and when i've played an
..aac file(itunes purchase) back to back with a burned/ripped copy of the
same file, i hear no difference(imho, the itunes built in mp3 encoder is
about as good as can be, not that it's the ONLY good one)

in the subscription services(yahoo, rhapsody, napster), you pay your

Check them out again. Napster and Rhapsody, at the least, do not force
you to buy a subscription plan. They encourage you to, but you do not
have to, in order to buy music from them. Rhapsody even says: "No
monthly fee" on their info page.

see above, no monthly fee but limit of 25 songs a month.

in short,
buying 10 songs in iTunes=$9.99
buying 10 songs in rhapsody=$9.99 for the monthly fee + whatever it
costs for buying each song since i can't find those prices listed as
rhapsody doesn't seem to want to show me anything other than the main
page since it deems my browser "too old"

Napster: $0.99 per track.

if the rental plan works for you, cool, it doesn't work for me at all,

It does not.

as for the itunes software itself, it's dreamily easy to use, smart
playlists, custom smart playlists, non-smart playlists(ie, cherry

It also takes up a massive amount of disk space,

my music collection=6.63 GB
itunes software=30mb

how is that 30mb massive when that's roughly half of a 60 minute CD(when
encoded at 128) sure, rhapsody is (as they say) "a tiny plug in" but
come now, when hard drives are measured in the 10's of GB...

winamp, the player you suggest later, requires 15MB, and suggests 30mb.

and since i know you're going to say it, "don't forget the overhead of
quicktime", meh, a) quicktime itself is worth it and everyone should
have it*, b) winamp requires it's own storage+a browser since it has no
music store built in.

is slow to load,

not here, or on the PC's i've used it on

slow
to respond to some commands,

not here, or on the PC's i've used it on

slowed down my computer when running,

not here, or on the PC's i've used it on

slow
to update its library,

not here, or on the PC's i've used it on(not being repetitive to be an
ass, being repetitive to stress that each of these comments is being
commented on individually, not "missing" one.

and I found it cumbersome to use because common
control elements were missing.

such as?

I also found that other iPod management software not only doesn't have
all of that, they also managed the content on the iPod better. With
iTunes, I had to do double-maintenance. To get rid of a song from the
iPod, I had to remove it from iTunes AND the iPod, otherwise iTunes
would simply copy it back into its library from the iPod, or back to
the iPod from the library.

uncheck it from the list=itunes ignores it until it's re-checked. but it
stays on the list

picking songs i want), listing songs instantly by any one of about 20
different criteria, batch editing of id3 tag information, automatic
query of CDDB for the title/artist/track/album name of any audio CD you
put in, along with ripping of that cd with one click(or just one song on
that cd, in aiff, mp3, aac, apple losless, or wav, all fully
customizable for quality), burning of CD's instantly as either mp3 or
audio cd(which i've never had fail to play in any player that says "mp3
compatible" or "cd-r compatible" and working with stereos and dvd
players and home theaters, they get played in damn near every model that
comes out every year), ability to broadcast my library across my LAN(no,
i don't use this since the only other machine on my LAN is in my living
room and i have no real reason to send it over there since i'm always
over here), and as of right now, 899 available streaming audio broadcast
stations.

that's not even touching the "store"

Give Winamp a try sometime. :)

one caveat, i'm currently at home on my mac, with no access to a PC, so
all of the following is based off the tutorial on winamp.com, if there
are other methods, i have no way of finding them out :-)

according to their website, i'd have to buy the pro version in order to
rip into mp3, aac, or any other format, or to burn at full speed of my
burner.

making a playlist in winamp=click library, select "new playlist" from
menu, name playlist.
making a playlist in itunes=click "+" sign, name playlist

adding new music in winamp=looks like the only way is to add it threw
menu functions.
itunes=drag music file(or folder containing several files) onto itunes
icon. or the menu method.

ripping in winamp, looks like you can only rip a whole CD, not an
individual track
itunes, ripping individual tracks or whole cd's is simple.

burning looks the same on both, one difference, i seem to notice, i see
no "check mark" system in winamp, meaning, an entire "playlist" will
burn or not burn in winamp, no way to make a playlist...say "all songs
about trucks"(being hypothetical here ;-) and then de-select some of the
songs when i want to make a CD out of that list, i'd have to make a
brand new playlist with only the songs i plan to burn on it. in itunes,
if i have 35 songs in one playlist(for listening on the computer/ipod),
but want to make a cd out of it for my stereo or whatever, then i can
leave that playlist alone, and simply uncheck the songs i don't
want/don't fit on the cd.

most important factor-can't use winamp on every computer i have access
to(and my primary one especially), so i'd have to "learn" a new front
end for each system, itunes however, i can use either place.

looking at the screen shots though, it looks cumbersome as you claim
itunes to be, not intuitive, as i claim itunes to be :-)

in short, whatever works for you, cool, but many of the so-called
"limits" of itunes are just talk, in my experience.

....Chris

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: FOAK: New iPod
    ... synching from one instance of iTunes, ... I've got an iPod Nano and an iPhone connected to my iTunes. ... I think you can achieve that using playlists. ...
    (uk.rec.motorcycles)
  • Re: best music to game by
    ... So in reality I've got 3 copies of the tunes (iPod itself, HD, and backup). ... All those hours of coding in the quips and songs... ... In iTunes, under the "File" menu, there's a back up to disc option that lets you choose to save both the files AND the playlists if you want. ... In the iTunes preferences, there's a "Sharing" tab that lets you share your library on your local network, and that gives you the option to share either your entire library or selected playlists. ...
    (rec.games.frp.dnd)
  • Re: Appleopoly DOES exist
    ... Apple is the only company that can produce a MP3 player that can link ... to iTunes. ... latest 'iPod killer'. ... Sure, if you don't have an iPod, you can't buy songs for your music ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: iTunes Replacement
    ... a program that has no functionality except the ability ... to let you load up an iPod like you do a flash drive (moving folders and ... That is what I do with iTunes. ... Create playlists for the music that you want on the iPod. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.apps)
  • Re: City of Dreams
    ... I have used both iTunes and WinAmp on Windows as well. ... the iPod synchs with the Library and with all playlists. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated)